Tuesday, August 24, 2010

my brain is full ...

my mind is going a million miles a minute thinking about the weekend and trying to process all kinds of things

some of what I really really liked about this weekend:

  • Sally's speed - she was consistently the fastest or second fastest dog in her classes
  • no bars all weekend (not that I expected them)
  • Sally's distance work was amazing .. I had every confidence when I sent her out to something it would be done
  • All dogs read front and rear crosses without issue
  • Sally held every start line stay like a pro
  • Thea's dog walks and aframes were PERFECT (so were Brody's ~ I really must give that boy credit too)
  • I got the balance right to warm up each dog properly - take Sally out and let her run after the Frisbee - let Thea stretch and pee and wander around while Sally blasts.. give each of them lots of individual time but together time is fine too ... all of them appreciated a warm up jump or two
  • Sampson coped just fine at home with Nancy coming to give him a break
  • I got to watch people handle a wide variety of dogs in a million different ways



some of what gives me fat to chew as the expression goes:
  • a dog went off at Sally and me on the start line - lunging through the soft sided crate and through the ring gate - scared the pants off us both - in fact I burst into tears (great way to start a run huh?)
  • Sally got a little barky at dogs who dared look at her in her crate a couple of times
  • Thea dropped behind me on course twice - I saw it both times once I managed to get her back on track once I failed
  • Thea worried about the chute
  • Sally behaved like she'd never seen the downside of an aframe in her life
  • Sally barked at me on course
  • Brody was slow off the start line a couple of times
  • Brody bobbled in the weaves - didn't stop or go backwards but definitely struggled

no wonder my mind is full ...

2 comments:

Sam said...

Well, it does look like the good outweighed the bad. So sorry about that dog getting snarky with yours. I have no problem with people bringing does with issues to trials (IF the dog has been trained to a very high level and shown progress with their behavior modification), but they need to properly manage them and ensure that they never get in the way of another exhibitor. I would have cried, too!

andrea said...

the people were most apologetic - I went and met the dog afterwards as I was a wreck ... she is a sweetie pie but she had been left unattended for a bit and really overreacted to us

I don't mind dogs with issues either but it felt like this trial was FULL of them .. one extreme or the other - either people with barking over the top dogs or people insisting on tugging right in the aisle in front of my crates

I ended up carrying poor little Thea virtually everywhere inside as it was all people making me crazy ;)